My wife had the opportunity to do a “behind the scenes” visit at a local restaurant. She toured the kitchen, the dining room, the bar area and had the opportunity to help out and observe in the kitchen for several hours. She loved it.

Along the way, she was shown the restaurant computer system. They use Open Table for reservations. Of course, that’s the part that interested me.

Open Table handles the reservations, but it does much more than that. The system has functionality built in that allows the restaurant to record notes on each customer. The restaurant staff can record seating preferences, food allergies, important dates like birthdays, and anything else that seems important.

Having all of this information allows the restaurant to meet the particular needs of each individual customer. It enables the restaurant to demonstrate how much they care by “remembering” the customer and their preferences.

They make us feel special when they say something like “It’s good to see you again Mr. Rosen, would you like to sit near the fireplace like you did last time? We have that table for you if you like.” Maybe I’m a sucker, but that sort of thing makes me feel good.

My question for you today is “what are you doing to make it easy for you to make your clients feel special?”

What data are you collecting that can be used later to make an impact on the client’s perception of your service? How can you make them feel good?

One thing we’ve come up with is recording the client’s favorite drink. We keep a record of what they like and offer that drink each time they come in. It helps.

We also record the client’s preferred method of communication and try to stick to it. Some prefer email, others prefer the phone. Some ask us to call them at work, some at home, and some on the cell phone. We do our best to follow their preferences.

We do the same for sending documents. Some prefer snail mail, some email and some ask us to hold documents until they come in.

The possibilities for customizing the service to the client are limited only by your imagination. We’re constantly thinking about what we can do to make the client feel special and building our systems around the delivery of that objective.

Take a few minutes, do it right now or you’ll forget, to think about what data you need to collect so that you can make your client feel special. Then start building a system (your own Open Table) for collecting that data and using it to improve your practice and your client’s life.